Voices for Our Fathers Keeping Memory of Horrific Study Alive
The Tuskegee syphilis experiment recruited poor men with “bad blood” from rural Macon County, Ala., as test subjects. The study went on for decades, despite its ethical issues.

‘Government only pays for the positive outcomes.’ A strikingly new approach to social problems.
Two states announced Tuesday that they would experiment with an unusual method of financing human service programs that allows governments to pay nothing unless the programs are successful.

Needle Exchanges Can Now Get Federal Funding
Lifting the ban underscores a growing recognition that needle exchange programs can help reduce the the spread of infectious diseases

A First-Aid Class for Mental Health
Most people know how to help someone with a cut or a scrape. But what about a panic attack?

South Dakota is first state to pass bill restricting transgender students’ bathroom use
The South Dakota state legislature on Tuesday passed a bill that would require public school students to use the bathroom, shower and locker room that correspond to their biological sex.

Transgender Patients Face Challenges at the Hospital
After a skiing accident in January left him with a smashed knee, Beck Bailey, a transgender man in Greenfield, Mass., spent 15 days in a Vermont hospital undergoing a handful of surgeries. As part of his normal routine, Mr. Bailey gives himself regular shots of testosterone. But the endocrinologist on duty in Vermont told him that patients should not take testosterone post surgery.

What Dying Looks Like in America’s Prisons
In many places, inmates who want to go into hospice care have to sign a do-not-resuscitate order first.

An American History of Lead Poisoning
Flint is the latest outbreak in the country’s longest-running child-health epidemic.

Why Depression Screenings Should Be Part of Routine Check-Ups
New guidelines make mental health a higher priority in primary care.

In Palliative Care, Comfort Is the Top Priority
Last year, when an oncologist advised that Betty Chin might benefit from palliative care, her son Kevin balked.

Founded for the Poor, Mass General Looks to the Wealthy
Can a hospital founded more than 200 years ago to treat the poor also adopt a form of medicine some criticize as health care for the rich?

When the Hospital Fires the Bullet
More and more hospital guards across the country carry weapons. For Alan Pean, seeking help for mental distress, that resulted in a gunshot to the chest.

Texas Panel Calls for an End to Criminal IDs via Bite Mark
An influential scientific commission in Texas called Friday for a halt in the use of bite-mark identifications in criminal trials, concluding that the validity of the technique has not been scientifically established.

Assisted Suicide Study Questions Its Use for Mentally Ill
A new study of doctor-assisted death for people with mental disorders raises questions about the practice, finding that in more than half of approved cases, people declined treatment that could have helped, and that many cited loneliness as an important reason for wanting to die.

Is It Time To Stop Using Race In Medical Research?
Authors of an article published in the journal Science argue we have taken the concept of race too far.

The Risks (And Unexpected Benefits) Of Sending Health Students Abroad
The concern that health students not go out of bounds has come to the fore because of the growing demand for programs that bring health students from the developed world to do volunteer work in poor countries.

Zika

FDA: Blood donors at risk for Zika should defer giving blood for 4 weeks
The Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that anyone infected by — or potentially exposed to — the Zika virus should wait at least four weeks before donating blood in the United States.

NIH officials accelerate timeline for human trials of Zika vaccine, saying they will now begin in the summer
National Institutes of Health officials said this week that researchers may be closer to developing a Zika vaccine than previously thought and that tests on human subjects could begin in as soon as a few months.

Beyond Zika: The terrifying map of things that keep NIH’s infectious diseases director up at night
For infectious disease experts, the most terrifying aspect of their job is the unpredictability of emerging infectious diseases.